What’s behind the crisis in council services – and can Labour fix it?

Struggling towns are unlikely to see any bailout for bankrupt councils, as Sean O’Grady explains

Many services provided by councils are under threat (Supplied)

England’s councils are in financial crisis and many will collapse in the coming years, according to the Local Government Information Unit. It warns that, unless the funding system is reformed, more than half the councils who responded to its survey will be unable to balance their books over the next five years.

Two-thirds of councils say they are cutting services, and many are pushing council tax and charges higher. All of which is on top of the deep cuts suffered during the “age of austerity” after 2010.

The problem has been highlighted by the plight of Birmingham City Council, which last year had to issue a Section 114 (s114) notice, in which a local authority’s finance director is required by law to give notice the council can no longer afford to keep operating. It refers to the relevant part of the 1988 Local Government Finance Act. The widening crisis will not be easy to contain.